


Inspiration

by bluepulsebluepulse



Category: Blue Beetle (Comics), DCU (Comics), Impulse (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon), Young Justice (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Art School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Bart has art talents, Bluepulse, Drabble, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gift, M/M, Oneshot, Speedbuggy, Strangers, art school au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:34:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27754672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluepulsebluepulse/pseuds/bluepulsebluepulse
Summary: Bart's newest art assignment is causing him to flip out - how will he ever pick just one thing to draw?
Relationships: Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes
Comments: 5
Kudos: 29





	Inspiration

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spidey_flash](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spidey_flash/gifts).



> Posting another gift!
> 
> This fic is dedicated to @Spidey_Flash (also known as @lighting-give-me-abs on Tumblr). Thank you for supporting my works! And thank you again for that numerous fanarts you have done for me!
> 
> I am sorry it took me so long to write! I am so sorry to those who have been waiting longer and are still waiting for their gifts! With what little time I do have available, I can only write what I'm in the mood for. So yeah, sorry to those who are still waiting for gifts! I haven't forgotten about y'all!
> 
> God I am so tired. At least Christmas is coming up soon, hopefully I can catch a break then and get some well needed rest. Hope everyone is doing well and is looking forward to festive holiday rapidly approaching!

An anxious man sat silently at his wooden stool trying to drown out the simultaneous conversations he was surrounded by. He repeatedly bashed the innocent tip of his lead pencil onto a plane of plain paper. Luckily, the millions of tightly grouped freckles were contained only to the corner of his blank page.

A late Mr Tate Archer stumbled in through the brass doors to his classroom, only just managing not to drop his coffee and briefcase. He quickly charged through all the boisterous chatter trying to slow him down from getting to his desk to start the college class.

“Good afternoon all. Sorry I’m late.”

It took about ten seconds for all the students to become as silent as Bart had been from the very beginning. He knew everyone else was excited, but how could he be? He didn’t have an idea yet.

“I’m sure as you’re all aware, today we begin your first assignment,” the experienced teacher clapped his hands and stood up again, “It’s free choice but I want to see passion, so draw something you’re interested in.”

Unsurprisingly, a hand rose up in the cluster of students positioned towards the back of the class. If Bart had noticed, he would have already been able to guess the next question based on the nature of the troublesome student asking.

“Mr Archer, can we draw naked people?”

Everyone else at that particular table broke down into a mischievous chuckle as Jason grinned pleased with himself.

The teacher sighed with exhaustion but rules were rules.

“As long as it’s tasteful.”

The majority of the class rolled their eyes and prayed to move on because they were eager to get pen to paper.

“Alright, any other questions?” A few moments of silence passed as some shot Jason warning glares. “Nope. Okay, you can all begin.”

Virtually all of Bart’s peers wasted no time in allowing their hands to leap onto their canvases. And so began the sound of mad scribbling. Shortly after, the additional sound of paint brushes being throttled in - soon to be filthy - water was added to the mix. The noise made it even harder for Bart to hear himself think. He had no idea what he was going to sketch.

Somehow he was thinking to loudly to compensate for all the noise in the room, which is when the teacher approached him.

“Everything alright Bart?”

The auburn hair parted to the sides of his forehead as he looked up from the white void sitting on the table in front of him.

“Yeah… I just don’t know what to draw?”

Tate folded his arms and grinned beside the student. Year after year it was the same. There was always someone in his class who didn’t know what to draw for this assignment. He often found it was these students who produced the best work over the course of the year.

“The best advice I can give you is to not overthink it. Take a deep breath and take some time to think about it. Let inspiration find you, it’s all around us.”

The teacher - who was worrying about getting a parking ticket in the back of his mind - smiled and moved on to another student waving their hand in the sky. Bart looked back down at his artbook as the man left. 

He hummed for a minute hoping to turn over an idea as easily as the dotted page which he had just tucked away. Eventually, he sighed loudly with frustration. He looked up because he couldn’t bear the sight of taunting white any longer; and that’s when he saw him, his inspiration.

In his direct line of sight through the window ahead of him, a man leaned against the stair rail sensibly while the friend he was conversing with was risking a nasty fall backwards into a rock garden. The man was just… gorgeous. That word really didn’t do him justice. 

Just looking at him caused Bart to heave what air he had left in his lungs out onto the paper so that he could straighten his back. There was something about him that just got Bart’s attention. He couldn’t stop staring at the smooth caramel skin smeared over all his delectable features; everything from his chiseled chin to his bulging biceps. There wasn’t a single thing about him that Bart could fault; the entirety of this stranger’s appearance was overwhelmingly appealing.

Bart swallowed and before he even knew what had come over him, his fingers dipped to paper level and preliminary lines began to appear. At first, Bart ran in autopilot, mindlessly staring at Jaime whilst doing his best to draw in the dark.

At one point, the stranger’s friend - who favored the color orange more than a pupil of Bart’s named Mari - moved into his way. He could no longer see his inspiration! Bart tried not to panic and leaned over to the right on his elbow so that he could continue gawking at the handsome wonder. Fortunately, his initial view was restored and he continued sketching away blindly.

The stranger’s sixth sense must have kicked in because that’s when he turned to catch Bart full on staring at him. The serious frown became less serious as it shrank a little with curiosity. Bart eyes widened as his pencil dove for cover off the page and ran onto the table - much as he wished he could do; but it was too late for him.

Bart hastily looked down and desperately tried to erase the line trailing off the edge of the page. It was the perfect distraction he needed to force himself to not surrender to temptation and look up again. It took a minute, but the runaway line representing his heart flatlining was no longer visible. He took a deep breath and surveyed his drawing so far, it was fairly good; but it needed to be better.

Only now did he decide to be strategic and risk intermittent glances at the stranger. This method worked much better and allowed for the addition of more detailed lines as Bart captured his glorious likeness. The class began to stretch on and on and Bart got lost in time. He was starting to do too good of a job on his sketch because even looking at it was now causing him to short circuit. He decided to take a quick break and carefully flipped the delicate page to begin scribbling away on a new one.

A loud clap suddenly got his attention.

“Alright all, that’s the end of class! We’ll pick up again where we left off next week.”

Many disappointed students who had been dancing away with their mojo begrudgingly began to pack up their belongings. Bart looked down and was genuinely surprised at how much progress he had made in one lesson. He wouldn’t even really have all that much to do during the next class. He decided to look up though one last time for good measure so that he could hopefully take a mental image of his inspiration to stay with him forever; but alas, he was gone.

Oddly enough as Bart absentmindedly packed up his things, he noticed the friend in orange was still sitting on the rail but was now talking to someone else. Bart sighed sadly and prayed that his inspiration would appear at the same time during his next class.

It was never like Bart to be the last person out of the class, he was usually the first, but he dragged his feet across the tiled floor. He narrowly missed a puddle of murky water that had accidentally been spilled onto the floor at some stage. None of the bright, newly discovered colors created on the canvases Bart walked past cheered him either as he headed towards the door.

He heaved the heavy door open and relished in the cool air outside and began walking back to his car. He suddenly felt a hurried hand on his shoulder. Bart span around and much to his surprise, his - out of breath - teacher was standing there.

“Hey Bart, you forgot your phone. You left it on the table.”

“Oh,” he quietly reached over and accepted the smartphone, “Thanks.”

“No problem. See you next week.”

The teacher left as quickly as he had come. Bart felt like the world’s biggest moron for having left his phone behind. He really had been all consumed by thoughts about his inspiration. It extended beyond just his looks, Bart wanted to get to know him. There was just something about him. Bart turned around and kept walking distractedly and chuckled to himself quietly over the situation. He couldn’t stop thinking about a total stranger, who wasn’t even slightly aware of Bart’s extraordinary fascination with him.

Bart felt another hand come down on his shoulder and span around again to collect whatever else he had left behind. It turned out he hadn’t left anything behind, but he did drop his phone again.

“Hola.”

And Bart be damned, if it wasn’t the slightly flustered stranger he had just spent an entire class thinking about. Bart quickly bent down and picked up his phone which really wasn’t feeling the love today.

“Uh, hey!”

A chipper sounding Bart quickly shoved an eager hand out as part of his messy introduction. The taller man was so slow to accept it, but he did so happily. The hands quickly dropped to their sides and they both tried to ignore the odd sensation running through their arms. It was relatively easy for the Latino to mask his feelings behind the same serious expression he always used.

“Lo siento. I just wanted to ask… Were you just drawing me?”

Bart bit his lip and grinned and that was all the answer Jaime needed. The guilty man laughed nervously and decided he had nothing to lose. His hammering heart was making it difficult to concentrate on being the suave and confident guy he was known for being. He scratched his head for a second and then decided to come clean and have fun whilst doing it.

“Yeah… I was,” he sighed happily, “There’s just something really crash about you…”

Bart held up his hand and grinned as Jaime’s eyebrows furrowed as if reaching for a dictionary inside his brain.

“It means cool,” he laughed feeling more at ease now, “It’s a good thing.”

“Crash huh?”

Bart felt something burn hotter inside of him like the sun when Jaime grinned and folded his arms almost approvingly. It would have caused his filter to malfunction - that’s if he had of actually had one.

“Yeah, plus you’re uhh, very attractive.”

Jaime’s eyes widened a bit at the abrupt admission. He was surprised the artist felt comfortable enough to just blurt that out to him. His humbled hand made its way to the back of his nervous neck.

“Gracias… What’s your name?”

“I’m Bart. Bart Allen. And you?”

“Jaime Reyes.”

“So,” the Caucasian grinned flirtatiously, “my inspiration now has a name.”

Jaime let out a singular laugh and decided to take a leap of faith, after all, he had snuck away from Tye specifically to talk to the man he had caught sketching him. He felt brave in the world of privacy that existed on the abandoned pathway of which they were both standing.

“Why spend time drawing me when you could spend time dating me instead?”

Now it was Bart’s turn to be surprised, not that Jaime’s previous level of shock could even come close to what he was feeling now.

“Are you… asking me out?” His disbelief rung volumes.

“Si.”

“Well,” he grinned cheekily, “I suppose I better say  _ yes  _ if you’re going to let me draw you again.”

Jaime nodded matter-of-factly before laughing at Bart’s antics, “So… when are you free?”

“How about right now?” he wiggled his eyebrows.

It was all Bart could do to stay whole as a smooth Jaime tucked him under his arm and walked off with him. Bart didn’t know where they were going, but something told him that inspiration would strike.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, feel free to comment if you want.
> 
> I am hoping to post some new stuff for Christmas so hopefully everyone will enjoy my upcoming works then!


End file.
